A Yellowstone 2nd Birthday

This last weekend we celebrated Miss Georgia's 2nd birthday. Instead of having a party (which kind of made me sad for a bit- I love throwing parties), we all took a trek up to Yellowstone! We have some friends who are performing this summer at the Playmill Theatre and they were kind enough to get us some tickets and let us stay at their place. Also, they are some of our very best friends, so how could pass up the opportunity to go see them? We also stayed with some other good friends on the way up and Georgia loved to play with baby Junior... and take advantage of his swing. 

ANYWAY. 

Georgia had a pretty epic birthday and Scott and I really enjoyed the down time and spending time together. We can hardly believe that Miss G turned 2. It's such a weird age. It's like she's a 9 month old baby one minute- in need of snuggles and happy to be tickled- and a teenager the next. 

2 mini donuts for a mini 2 year old

We decided that, since it was her birthday, we would take Georgia to the "Tea Time with Belle" the Playmill offers before the show. We thought that she would freak out when she saw Belle... and she did... kind of like when she met Santa Clause... I think she was a bit confused. It must be odd to know a character so well in 2D and then all of the sudden they are a giant person standing in front of you wanting a hug. She cried and another little girl cried and poor Belle proclaimed in the sweetest voice: "Oh dear! I've never had this reaction before! ... This is going to be a fun tea party, I can tell!"

They gave her a cupcake and ice cream and she had her first sip of soda and she still didn't warm up. It wasn't until Belle crowned Georgia a princess that she changed her mind about the whole situation. She was still nervous, but it was more of an "awe inspired" nervous than anything.

To me, the best part was watching Scott with Georgia this whole time. He was so cute with her. He gets such a kick out of little girly things and out of Georgia. He held her while she was crowned, and helped her when Belle taught everyone how to curtsy.

She sat on his lap the whole time and told her that the scary wolves were "funny puppies."

Before the play, they took Georgia on stage and sang her Happy Birthday- which she seemed comfortable with.

Georgia loved the play and sat through all but maybe 5 minutes of it. She was very concerned every time the Beast would exit the stage ("where Beast go?") and if Belle AND the Beast would exit... we had to keep her quiet.
The Beast was nice enough to let us get a picture with him after the show, and Georgia was WAY more excited about this than the picture depicts.

The next day, we headed into Yellowstone Park. We just went to Mammoth Hot Springs and Old Faithful (Georgia was slightly unimpressed) and it made for the perfect little day trip. We saw a buffalo and a BEAR! With her TWO BEAR CUBS! We couldn't believe our luck!

The day was kind of rainy and it cooled down the whole park to the perfect temperature and made everything smell slightly like Washington. We also found 44/51 state license plates and we considered this a giant success (especially when we saw a Hawaii one). The nerdy license plate game is my favorite to play every time we go to Yellowstone.

One of our favorite moments was when we got caught in the downpour on our way back to our car. Georgia LOVED getting soaked, as did Scott. They just kept looking at one another and laughing and screaming. This is them right after they got in the car. Have you ever seen two happier people?

Like I said before, the whole thing was a raging success. Yes, we didn't sleep as much as we would have liked. Yes, Georgia was quick to melt-down because she was tired. Yes, we wish we could have spent more time with Liz and Jacob, but we would not have traded this trip for anything. It's odd to think that it is our last adventure as a family of 3. I'm glad we were able to spend a whole weekend making sure that everything was all about Georgia so that we can tell her the stories of "when she was a baby" in a couple years when she's all jealous and irritated.

I think I will write another birthday post later, I just wanted to get this scattered post up about our trip before I forgot :)